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Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls

By David Sedaris

Paperback

£8.99

A new roundup of personal essays from the No. 1 bestselling writer named by Time as America's Favourite Humorist.

A guy walks into a bar . . .

From here the story could take many turns. A guy walks into a bar and meets the love of his life. A guy walks into a bar and finds no one else is there. When this guy is David Sedaris, the possibilities are endless. In Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, Sedaris delights with twists of humour and intelligence, remembering his father's dinnertime attire (shirtsleeves and underpants) his first colonoscopy (remarkably pleasant) and the time he considered buying the skeleton of a murdered pygmy. By turns hilarious and moving, David Sedaris masterfully looks at life's absurdities as he takes us on adventures that are not to be forgotten.

Other details

ISBN:
9780349119427

Publication date:
06 Mar 2014

Page count:
288

A dazzling collection — Mail on Sunday

Romantic, shocking and punctuated with the kind of funnies that, if you're reading while eating, make you snort food through your nose — Lisa Gee, Independent

There are lines that go off like firecrackers, storing up their hilarity until the last moment, and there are the one he lobs like little grenades amid the chaos and merriment — David Shariatmadari, Guardian

There are sudden moments of honest, revelation and frailty . . . Long may he write and long may the 'Indefinite Leave' sticker remain in the once stolen and now returned passport of this honorary Briton — Viv Groskop, Telegraph

Brilliantly clever, inventive and funny — Guardian

Treat yourself to this sparkling collection of essays . . . You'll gurgle with laughter or cringe in recognition of uncomfortable truths. Sedaris . . . can identify with almost any absurd situation and wring the last drop of wit from it, but he is also the master of elegantly crafted sentences that simultaneously convey vulnerability, compassion, cruelty and glee . . . polished to perfection — Daily Mail

Thoughtful, witty, excitable, world-weary, romantic, fastidious . . . creating waves of sympathy and wry humour, as though a rather amazing stranger is addressing you and you alone — Susie Boyt, Financial Times

Meet David Sedaris: Series Six

David Sedaris

Freefall

Tom Read

Authors:

Tom Read

FREEFALL is the story of a SAS member's journey into madness and his attempts to find his way out again. A former member of the British Parachute Regiment, Tom Read was preparing to freefall from more than 23 miles above the earth to become the first man to punch a hole through the sound barrier unassisted. It didn't work out that way. From his hospital bed in a French sanatorium, he began to review his life in an attempt to trace the roots of his madness: the tough childhood, moving from place to place; joining the Parachute Regiment at seventeen and confronting riots, IRA snipers and booby-traps; doing more than1,000 jumps with the Red Devils and the first ever Parachute drop onto the Falklands; and the high-altitude work that may have created a chemical imbalance in his brain. Weaving backwards and forwards between a haunting present and a remarkable past FREEFALL is an unrelentingly suspenseful account of an amazing life.

Mum, Can You Lend Me Twenty Quid?

Elizabeth Burton-Phillips

Authors:

Elizabeth Burton-Phillips

'Elizabeth's courage in speaking out is moving, and her ability to move others is impressive . . . This is a story that needs to be told, and needs to be heard.' - Theresa May, Prime Minister'I would urge all parents, teachers and pupils to read this heart-rending book.' - FT Magazine'A book that is moving and ultimately, inspiring.' - Waterstones Books QuarterlyElizabeth Burton Phillips is a teacher, an ordinary middle-class mother who had always tried to do the best for her children; she never imagined that her identical twin sons, who had been doing so well at school, would become involved in drugs. She was shocked when they were suspended from school for smoking cannabis; but this was just the start of a terrible, unimaginable journey - culminating in the knock on the door in the early hours by the police. They gave her the devastating news that her son Nick had killed himself in despair at his heroin addiction. Since his death, Elizabeth has campaigned tirelessly to make parents aware of the pain and suffering caused to families by drug addiction; and her surviving twin, Simon, now drug-free, has contributed his own thoughts to this inspiring and moving book.

Sisters First

Jenna Bush Hager, Barbara Pierce Bush

Authors:

Jenna Bush Hager, Barbara Pierce Bush

Born into a political dynasty, Jenna and Barbara Bush grew up in the public eye. As small children, they watched their grandfather become president; just twelve years later they stood by their father's side when he took the same oath. They spent their college years being trailed by the Secret Service and chased by the paparazzi, with every teenage mistake making national headlines. But the tabloids didn't tell the whole story of these two young women forging their own identities under extraordinary circumstances. In this book they take readers on a revealing, thoughtful, and deeply personal tour behind the scenes of their lives, with never-before-told stories about their family, their adventures, their loves and losses, and the special sisterly bond that fulfills them

Backing into the Spotlight

Michael Whitehall

Authors:

Michael Whitehall

Standing in front of a full-length mirror in my dressing room at ITV studios, waiting to go on to the set of Backchat, I had a brief conversation with my reflection.'Michael, what the f*** do you think you're doing?'Theatrical agent Michael Whitehall spent a career pushing others into the spotlight. He had been involved behind the scenes with the careers of many prominent actors, including Colin Firth, Richard Griffiths, Daniel Day-Lewis, Tom Courtenay, Ian Ogilvy, Judi Dench, Edward Fox, Michael Fassbender, Angela Thorne and Nigel Havers.But then, much to his surprise, his son Jack becomes a successful comedian and actor and decides that his new comedy partner should be his father. Whitehall Snr. finds himself reluctantly appearing on stage and then television, cast as the archetypal grumpy old man and thrust, in his early seventies, into a whole new career in front of the camera. Minor fame comes at a sedate pace: one of the highlights being a record £300,000 win for charity with Jack on Channel 4's The Million Pound Drop.In this enchanting memoir Whitehall looks back on his life, from growing up in suburban London in the 1940s and '50s with his saintly father and social climbing-mother, who coined the phrase 'à la carte' to describe people who were posher than she was and whose company she craved, to falling into a career as a successful theatrical agent and producer. As he says, 'Actors can be egotistical, greedy and vain, but they're not half as bad as agents and producers.'Charming, gossipy and above all very funny, Backing Into The Spotlight is no ordinary show business memoir.

David Sedaris: Live for Your Listening Pleasure

David Sedaris

Theft by Finding

David Sedaris

Homeward Bound

Peter Ames Carlin

Authors:

Peter Ames Carlin

To have been alive during the last sixty years is to have lived with the music of Paul Simon. The boy from Queens scored his first hit record in 1957, just months after Elvis Presley ignited the rock era. As the songwriting half of Simon & Garfunkel, his work helped define the youth movement of the '60s. On his own in the '70s, Simon made radio-dominating hits. He kicked off the '80s by reuniting with Garfunkel to perform for half a million New Yorkers in Central Park. Five years later, Simon's album "Graceland" sold millions and spurred an international political controversy. And it doesn't stop there.The grandchild of Jewish immigrants from Hungary, the nearly 75-year-old singer-songwriter has not only sold more than 100 million records, won 15 Grammy awards and been installed into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame twice, but has also animated the meaning?and flexibility?of personal and cultural identity in a rapidly shrinking world.Simon has also lived one of the most vibrant lives of modern times; a story replete with tales of Carrie Fisher, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Dylan, Woody Allen, Shelley Duvall, Nelson Mandela, the Grateful Dead, drugs, depression, marriage, divorce, and more. A life story with the scope and power of an epic novel, Carlin's Homeward Bound is the first major biography of one of the most influential popular artists in American history.

Lucky Lupin

Charlie Mortimer

Authors:

Charlie Mortimer

Lucky Lupin is a poignant yet light-hearted story of survival against the odds, based on Charlie Mortimer's life with HIV/Aids during the early years (1984-1996), when there was neither treatment nor cure. Using a combination of good luck, gallows humour, Fray Bentos pies and copious quantities of Solpadeine, Charlie survived not only the illness but the hysteria that accompanied the so-called 'gay plague'. Anyone infected became a social pariah; had the local launderette got word of his illness they wouldn't have washed his sheets but burnt them. Whilst taking full responsibility for the consequences of his behaviour - 'The fact is you don't get AIDS from watching telly' - Charlie initially took to the sofa and prepared for death, but, in time, he found the inner strength required to confront his fatal diagnosis, becoming, among other things, an antiques dealer and contemporary art collector.With blistering and often hilarious candour Charlie also recounts his childhood where he developed a passion for cars, cultivated by his adventurous mother 'Nidnod', his dizzying array of careers and somewhat curious domestic arrangements including the 'adoption' of a bank robber for twelve years. He also confronts head on his experiences of coming to terms with confused sexuality, addiction, epilepsy and clinical depression before finding lasting contentment.Praise for Dear Lupin:'As well as being the funniest book I've read in ages, it's also extremely touching. A delight then, on every front.' The Spectator 'Very, very funny.' Sunday Times'Wry, trenchant, often extremely funny, but also charmingly forbearing and forgiving.' Country Life

How to Talk Dirty and Influence People

Lewis Black, Howard Reich, Lenny Bruce

Authors:

Lewis Black, Howard Reich, Lenny Bruce

During the course of a career that began in the late 1940s, Lenny Bruce challenged the sanctity of organized religion and other societal and political conventions he widened the boundaries of free speech. Critic Ralph Gleason said, So many taboos have been lifted and so many comics have rushed through the doors Lenny opened. He utterly changed the world of comedy."Although Bruce died when he was only forty, his influence on the worlds of comedy, jazz, and satire are incalculable. How to Talk Dirty and Influence People remains a brilliant existential account of his life and the forces that made him the most important and controversial entertainer in history.

Crucible of Command

William C. Davis

Authors:

William C. Davis

Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee have never before been paired as they are here. In Crucible of Command , William C. Davis, one of America's preeminent historians, presents a thoroughly fresh portrait of these great commanders, revealing their personalities, their character, their ethical and moral compasses, and their political and military worlds as they took each other's measure across the battlefield. The result is history at its finest and one of the great books on the Civil War.

What Language Do I Dream In?

Elena Lappin

Hitler's Warrior

Danny S. Parker

The Brontës: A Life in Letters

Juliet Barker

Authors:

Juliet Barker

The Brontë story has been written many times but rarely as compellingly as by the Brontës themselves. In this selection of letters and autobiographical fragments we hear the authentic voices of the three novelist sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, their brother, Branwell, and their father, the Reverend Patrick Brontë. We share in their progress over the years: the exuberant childhood, absorbed in wild, imaginative games; the years of struggling to earn a living in uncongenial occupations before Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall took the literary world by storm; the terrible marring of that success as, one by one, Branwell, Emily and Anne died tragically young; the final years as Charlotte, battling against grief, loneliness and ill health, emerged from anonymity to take her place in London literary society and, finally, found an all too brief happiness in marriage to her father's curate. Juliet Barker, author of the highly acclaimed biography The Brontës has used her unrivalled knowledge of the family to select extracts from letters and manuscripts, many of which are appearing here in print for the first time. Charlotte was a letter-writer of supreme ability, ranging from facetious notes and homely gossip to carefully composed pages of literary criticism and, most movingly of all, elegiac tributes to her beloved brother and sisters. Emily and Anne remain tantalizingly evasive. Very few of their letters are extant. Emily's are mere businesslike notes, though these have been supplemented by her more revealing diary papers; Anne's letters are equally frustrating, but only because their quality makes us regret their paucity.Branwell emerges as distinctly as Charlotte from his letters. Whether trying to impress William Wordsworth with his literary abilities, showing off to his artistic friends or finally coming to terms with a life of failed ambition, his character is laid bare on every page. The Reverend Patrick Brontë's devotion to his children and passionate advocacy of liberal causes are equally well illustrated in what can only be a small selection from his voluminous correspondence.The Brontë letters are supplemented by extracts from other contemporary sources, which allow us to see the family as their friends and acquaintances saw them. A brief narrative text guides the reader through the letters and sets them in context. By allowing the Brontës to tell their own story, Juliet Barker has not only produced an innovative form of biography but also given us the unique privilege of participating intimately in the lives of one of the most famous and best-loved families of English literature.

I Swear I'll Make It Up to You

Mishka Shubaly

Easy Street (the Hard Way)

Ron Perlman

Authors:

Ron Perlman

The engaging, passionate, always-honest, and often-hilarious memoir of actor Ron Perlman,his triumphant story of perseverance and determination navigating the slippery slopes of Hollywood, with a foreword by Guillermo del ToroRon Perlman was a kid who had a myriad of self-image issues, yet he triumphed in an industry that trades on image and self-confidence. He landed a leading role in Quest for Fire , won a Golden Globe for Beauty and the Beast , and played the title role in two Hellboy movies, becoming along the way an icon among sci-fi and comic book fans worldwide.In Easy Street (the Hard Way) , Ron shares his life story, starting with his up-by-your-bootstraps background in New York's Washington Heights. He sheds light on his life as a working actor offers behind-the-scenes insight into the working styles of directors, including Jean-Jacques Annaud, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and Guillermo del Toro ( Hellboy and the Academy award-winning Pan's Labyrinth ) and provides a peek into Hollywood, where he's encountered Marlon Brando, Sean Connery, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and others. He also turns his eye on the trajectory of American culture,the good and the bad,as observed by a man who started out in a mom-and-pop world where the arts were disseminated by individuals rather than corporations.Ron's memoir will inspire anyone who has ever dared to dream and offers a roadmap to the next generation of dreamers.